This gallery contains 23 photos.
Madras (today’s Chennai), is India’s fourth city, after New Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta. It has a fascinating history and a rich wealth of architectural heritage, but is often looked over for its more glamorous sister-cities. What is perhaps surprising for … Continue reading
This gallery contains 20 photos.
When I first got the job, someone – a good friend of mine who just so happens to be the other Director of a National Museum (there aren’t that many – you know who you are) warned me that I … Continue reading
This gallery contains 17 photos.
Nadesar Palace is a dream of a boutique hotel. First built by the East India Company in the late 1700s, it was then taken over by the Maharajah Prabhu Narain Singh of the Royal House of Benares from 1889, and … Continue reading
This gallery contains 27 photos.
Further inland from the river, beyond the ghats, lie two different parts of Benares. The first is its sprawling, bustling old town; the second, lying even further afield, is the Cantonment, built by the British when they too, found their … Continue reading
This gallery contains 26 photos.
Part Two of this wander through the legendary ghats of Benares takes in Dashashmewadh Ghat to Panchganga (“five river”) Ghat. Beyond Panchganga, I venture no further, nor would the river boats take me onwards. There are three major ghats here worth … Continue reading
This gallery contains 26 photos.
The main event in the sacred city of Benares, are its supposedly 87 ghats, which the grand tourist can take in from end to end in a single, three hour walk, or an hour-long boat-ride on the Ganges River. I … Continue reading
This gallery contains 19 photos.
Benares is old. Older than the other cities on this Grand Tour. Older than most cities… It rises, like a mirage, on the west bank of the mighty Ganges River. It is a port city, but of souls first and … Continue reading
This gallery contains 11 photos.
The Grand Hotel is, as its name suggests, the grande dame of the Calcutta hospitality scene. Located, as it was and still is, on Chowringhee Road, it is situated right in the centre of the city’s social and entertainment scene. … Continue reading
This gallery contains 14 photos.
No visit to Calcutta is complete without a day-trip to two of its most important Hindu temples and pilgrimage sites, and without a stroll along the city’s waterfront from Prinsep Ghat to Babughat – perhaps the most Romantic spot in … Continue reading
This gallery contains 34 photos.
Calcutta in its heyday was divided into two main districts – White Town, which was where the British and other Europeans lived their lives and did their business, and Black Town, which was where the local Bengalis resided. Some of … Continue reading
Dream Of A City 